A weekend of protest
Oxford students have a patchy history of protesting. Every so often, there is an issue that captures our attentions and fires our consciences. More often than not, however, in the middle of a hectic term, with up to three essays a week and several hours of teaching, Oxford students are more reluctant than their counterparts across the country to get out onto the streets and make their feelings known.
This weekend may be one of those few occasions, though, as the pro-animal testing group Pro-Test plan their biggest march yet through the centre of Oxford. It seems that after a long campaign carried out principally by the ALF, the militant group in support of animal rights, against the university and its students, students themselves have decided to speak out.
What is it about the issue of animal testing that has made Oxford students sit up and engage with the outside world for once? Partially, the move has been motivated by firmly held principles and a willingness to back them up with action. There are two principles at stake here which are often fudged together, and they should be clearly deliniated. The first is the principle that academic freedoms should be protected.
Many students feel this is the real issue at stake, and might support Pro-Test in order to help uphold those freedoms. Indeed, it is difficult to attend one of the world’s most elite universities and not have a serious concern for the rights of our academics to carry out their research free from the threat of violence and intimidation. The second goes a step further, saying that it is not only allowable, but it is good that academics should test on animals.
The majority of Oxford students have been shown to support animal testing, not just academic freedom, and have a genuine belief that the building of such a lab, in the name of furthering the cause of human understanding and welfare, should be built. However, there is something else here at play which seems to be stirring students to action possibly more than any deeply felt principles, and that is a sense of tribal loyalty.
There is a feeling that Oxford as an institution to which we all belong is under attack, and students are moving to defend it. It is telling that Pro-Test have urged their supporters to wear university clothing, and if not, anything blue, in a show of solidarity with the university.
There is a real danger, with rhetoric such as this, that the demonstration on Saturday will be dominated by feelings of tribal loyalty, especially since Pro-Test have arranged their march on the same day as SPEAK’s monthly demontration. It is of course tempting for each side to demonise the other, and the onus is currently on the committee that run Pro-Test to ensure that they maintain the moral high ground and do not stoop to the lowest common denominator.
So we have in Oxford this Saturday a situation where activists from both sides of the animal rights debate intend to take to the streets and campaign and where SPEAK’s refusal to co-ordinate with the police, and their general invitation to their supporters to campaign in ‘various places in Oxford’ means that nobody even knows where potential clashes my occur. Into this mix, now throw the prospect of an English faculty open day.
The prospect of encouraging potential applicants to the university to put Oxford on their UCAS forms against the backdrop of angry demonstrations, massive police presence and even possible intimidation by SPEAK (the group have already stated their intent to demonstrate outside conferences run jointly by Oxford and Cambridge to help sixth-formers make university choices) is ridiculous to the point of farce. Of course, all this is mere conjecture.
It may be that Saturday passes off with little incident and a minimum of protestors it is always difficult to predict how many will turn up to a public demonstration. It may be the case that Oxford students haven’t been woken from their insularity at all, in which case, enjoy your lie-in this Saturday.
23rd Feb 2006